Be Wary Of Ever-Glory International Group (NASDAQ:EVK) And Its Returns On Capital

Did you know there are some financial metrics that can provide clues of a potential multi-bagger? Firstly, we'll want to see a proven return on capital employed (ROCE) that is increasing, and secondly, an expanding base of capital employed. Basically this means that a company has profitable initiatives that it can continue to reinvest in, which is a trait of a compounding machine. In light of that, when we looked at Ever-Glory International Group (NASDAQ:EVK) and its ROCE trend, we weren't exactly thrilled.

What is Return On Capital Employed (ROCE)?

Just to clarify if you're unsure, ROCE is a metric for evaluating how much pre-tax income (in percentage terms) a company earns on the capital invested in its business. To calculate this metric for Ever-Glory International Group, this is the formula:

Return on Capital Employed = Earnings Before Interest and Tax (EBIT) ÷ (Total Assets - Current Liabilities)

0.029 = US$4.1m ÷ (US$332m - US$189m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to December 2020).

Thus, Ever-Glory International Group has an ROCE of 2.9%. Ultimately, that's a low return and it under-performs the Luxury industry average of 15%.

See our latest analysis for Ever-Glory International Group

While the past is not representative of the future, it can be helpful to know how a company has performed historically, which is why we have this chart above. If you want to delve into the historical earnings, revenue and cash flow of Ever-Glory International Group, check out these free graphs here.

How Are Returns Trending?

On the surface, the trend of ROCE at Ever-Glory International Group doesn't inspire confidence. Over the last five years, returns on capital have decreased to 2.9% from 20% five years ago. And considering revenue has dropped while employing more capital, we'd be cautious. This could mean that the business is losing its competitive advantage or market share, because while more money is being put into ventures, it's actually producing a lower return - "less bang for their buck" per se.

On a separate but related note, it's important to know that Ever-Glory International Group has a current liabilities to total assets ratio of 57%, which we'd consider pretty high. This can bring about some risks because the company is basically operating with a rather large reliance on its suppliers or other sorts of short-term creditors. While it's not necessarily a bad thing, it can be beneficial if this ratio is lower.

The Bottom Line

In summary, we're somewhat concerned by Ever-Glory International Group's diminishing returns on increasing amounts of capital. Yet despite these concerning fundamentals, the stock has performed strongly with a 44% return over the last five years, so investors appear very optimistic. In any case, the current underlying trends don't bode well for long term performance so unless they reverse, we'd start looking elsewhere.

Since virtually every company faces some risks, it's worth knowing what they are, and we've spotted 4 warning signs for Ever-Glory International Group (of which 1 is a bit unpleasant!) that you should know about.

If you want to search for solid companies with great earnings, check out this free list of companies with good balance sheets and impressive returns on equity.

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